Remember Happy Steak? Perko’s? This one man had huge impact on Fresno restaurant scene

Do you remember Happy Steak in Fresno?

Or another more modern restaurant that’s still around — Country Waffles?

Or what about other decades-old restaurants in the central San Joaquin Valley, including Perko’s Cafe, Brooks Ranch, Early Dawn or Jeb’s Swedish Creamery?

All of them had one thing in common: H.T. “Chic” Brooks was involved in founding them. Brooks, of Easton, died Aug. 6 at age 96 after dealing with dementia for years.

The man’s name was synonymous with the Fresno restaurant scene starting in the 1960s and the decades after.

As late as 2014, a Fresno Bee file photo shows an 88-year-old Brooks in an apron, churning out pumpkin ice cream in the kitchen of Jeb’s Swedish Creamery in Kingsburg.

Brooks was involved with at least 20 restaurant concepts with more than 200 locations. Some, like Happy Steak — home of the “Golden Spud,” a baked potato in gold foil — are long gone. Others are still doing brisk business.

It wasn’t all him, of course. There were partners, and he often franchised the restaurants to new owners who continued to run them for years.

Brooks had three daughters and a son, Randy, who grew up working in his dad’s restaurants. Randy founded Cool Hand Luke’s (named after his own son), which now has six locations, along with breakfast and lunch restaurant Huckleberry’s. He and Luke Brooks founded Brooks Burgers together, which until recently had a location in River Park.

“He was the type of guy that didn’t have any fear of failure,” Randy Brooks said of his father. “He would just go for things.”

He was feisty and tough. Unstoppable.

“I think a modern-day Yosemite Sam was the best way to describe it,” Randy Brooks said.

Happy Steak

Happy Steak was perhaps Chic Brooks’ best known restaurant. Before it was Happy Steak, several locations were Topper’s steakhouse franchises and Brooks ran one in Fresno.

When Topper’s went bankrupt, Brooks and 17 other franchisees launched Happy Steak. There were at least four in Fresno, along with locations in Visalia, Madera and Hanford — more than 50 in total.

One of the oldest, at Clinton and Blackstone avenues in Fresno, became a Chinese restaurant before it was razed to make way for apartments in recent years.

Brooks had a hand in creating the valley’s restaurant landscape for decades. He was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the California Restaurant Association in 2001.

“So many people in the valley were employed by the company,” said his daughter-in-law, Deborah Brooks. “The influence just went on and on.”

Roger Hann of Fresno was 15 when his mom, a waitress at the Chicken Pie Shop, helped him get a job at the Topper’s near Clinton and Weber avenues in Fresno in the 1960s.

Things were different back then. Chain restaurants didn’t blanket almost every major corner.

“There weren’t that many restaurants,” Hann said. “There certainly weren’t that many chain restaurants. You know, Fresno stopped at Shaw, to have four restaurants in town was a big deal.”

Hann would go on to become a manager of Happy Steak at age 21, before switching to a career in law enforcement and eventually becoming a crisis and hostage negotiator.

He remembers packed dining rooms on Mondays and Wednesdays. That’s when Happy Steak offered a 99-cent steak dinner — a New York steak or a sirloin with that Golden Spud and toast.

“It was a huge draw,” he said. “When you did a $1,000 day, you worked your butt off. That was the goal, make a $1,000 for the day.”

Brooks’ background

Despite not getting beyond the 10th grade, Brooks would build a multi-million dollar business operation.

He got his start as a member of the Merchant Marines. A kamikaze pilot sank his ship in World War II, and Brooks swam two miles before being rescued, according to Fresno Bee archives.

In 1949, he borrowed $800 from his father and started Chic’s Quality Market in Waterford, near Modesto. He sold it and jumped into restaurants.

Eventually, he would launch a commissary and a meat plant that supplied the restaurants.

His real love though? Racing pigeons.

The kind you drop off 100 to 300 miles away and the fastest one to make it home wins. Brooks imported, bred and sold the birds.

“He basically was one of the world’s leading breeders of racing pigeons,” said Dave Shewmaker of Shingle Springs, who also participates in the sport.